Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said on Sunday that lawmakers can’t “boil down” what a Supreme Court nominee would do in one case, such as Roe v. Wade, when determining whether to support a justice’s confirmation.
Lee responded to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos’s question about what the confirmation of President Trump’s nominee Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court would mean for the landmark abortion case.
“You know, only time can tell what will happen to any one precedent,” he said.
“In any event, you can’t look at the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice and boil down that jurist’s contribution to the law, past and future, to what they might do with a single case,” he added.
The Utah Republican added that “overruling a precedent” is “a lot more complicated than people might think.”
He also labeled Barrett as a judge with “an incredible background.”
{mosads}“This is a judge who will bring her expertise to the table,” he said. “And it will be brought to bear on a whole wide variety of scenarios, just as Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s expertise was brought to bear in her cases.”
Trump officially nominated Barrett, an appeals court judge, to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court on Saturday, following Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on Sept. 18.
Several Senate Republicans have said a nominee’s position on Roe v. Wade is central to whether they confirm her, despite other GOP senators who would rather discuss her general judicial temperament.
Republicans have moved to push the confirmation process forward, as the 2020 election lingers now 37 days away. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has vowed to vote on Trump’s nominee, despite his position to block Merrick Garland’s confirmation hearing four years ago for being too close to the election.
The Senate leader said the current situation is different because the same party heads the White House and the Senate. Former President Obama nominated Garland nine months before the 2016 election.